Saoirse Ronan has made it known that despite her love of going to the movie theater, she feels unsafe doing so, especially in America due to the threat of gun violence. The star is getting major Oscar buzz for The Outrun, where she leads as a woman struggling with addiction, and for the upcoming war drama Blitz from Steve McQueen, streaming on Apple TV+ November 22. In the wake of past mass shootings in theaters, Ronan makes her feelings known about the current state of the moviegoing experience.
While on the Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, Ronan addressed how her love for cinema has been tainted by a fear of a violent occurrence while attending a movie theater in the United States. In 2012, during a screening of The Dark Knight, a man went into a theater in Aurora, Colorado, committing a mass shooting that took 12 lives and injured many others. It may have happened over a decade ago, but the tragic and preventable event in United States history still lives fresh in the minds of some Americans. Ronan shares these fears too, explaining it’s one of the main reasons she doesn’t feel safe going to the theater.
“There are people I’m close to who don’t feel safe and can’t go to New York anymore because they’re just randomly getting attacked in the street for TikTok content. I don’t feel safe going to the cinema because I’m not sure if someone’s going to pull a gun out. It’s horrifying.”
Saoirse Ronan Advocates for Change This Upcoming Election
Ahead of the U.S. presidential election on November 5, Saoirse Ronan talked about the importance of the moment and its ripple effect on the rest of the world. Unbeknownst to some, Ronan was born in New York City as the only child of Irish immigrants before moving to Ireland when she was three years old. For that reason, among many others, Ronan feels strongly about what is at stake during this election period. The Oscar-nominated actress says that she plans to “be voting for the right person in this election,” who she believes to be Kamala Harris, the current vice president and Democratic Party candidate.
“America is such a huge part of how the world operates. If you guys go down, a large majority of us will go down. Please don’t be on the fence. The people who are undecided will sway this election one way or the other.
Of course, Ronan is far from the only person to speak out about this upcoming election. Most recently, Aubrey Plaza bashed the racist comments made by a comedian at a Donald Trump rally, including calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash.” Dave Bautista has been out and open about his support for Harris, going as far as to criticize Donald Trump for appealing to male voters through toxic masculinity. There has been a recent push by major celebrities as the election date gets closer, making Ronan the latest to advocate for major change in the country.